Inside The Cuckoo's Nest

As promised, the follow up to my most popular blog ever- The Cuckoo's Nest: Portland's Original Bohemian Boutique. These shots were taken in the early 70s and feature different spaces inside the shop as well as some more of the folks involved.

Oh, and awesome news! Julie's friend James Kiehle is now working on a book about The Cuckoo's Nest :-)

The famous men's Western shirts handmade by Georgia Drummond.

I'll take that one and that one and that one and that one...

Susie Carlson pretties up the racks.

The entrance.

The home of Bill & Sam (named after the Naito brothers- see original post).

John Stockert arranging flowers.

Four of the shop's seamstresses.

Georgia Drummond, head seamstress.

Jody Sterne, Marilyn Thompson, and Susie Carlton have fun with Raggedy Ann.

Jody behind the register.

Ric Young sketching a design. He is now, as Julie says, "designing costumes and directing Storefront Theatre productions for angels".

Ric and Jody being fabulous.

Robin Chilstrom, personal seamstress to Ric.

Leather craftsman Rik Ehmann.

The Native American jewelry booth.

The shop stocked a large inventory of jewelry made by the Hopi, Zuni, and Navajo tribes.

All the rest of the jewelry was handcrafted by local artists, one of whom was Dyke Vandenburgh who now owns a beautiful jewelry store in Lake Oswego, Oregon.

Handmade pottery by the late Joel Cotett of Portland and Michael Zametkin of Astoria.

The natural foods cafe, managed by Susie Carlton. As with the other hand carved signs, this one (missing the "i" in juice!) was made by Roger McKay.

The menu. Julie recalls that the most expensive item was an avocado, sharp cheddar cheese, tomato and sprout sandwich on wholegrain bread for 85 cents.

There were private dining booths which were wallpapered in antique sheet music. Julie says that customers would spend hours inside.

The natural cosmetic and body bar where customers would bring their own containers and buy in bulk (Julie was so ahead of her time!).

Nooks and crannies in the natural body care section.

Okay and I still have one more Cuckoo's Nest blog to post, all about the musician associated with the shop and some of the AMAZING posters and marketing images they created!